Environmental Defense: The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Goal: Defend the caribou, polar bears and other wildlife that depend on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge against attempts to explore and drill for oil.

One of the most spectacular wildlife migrations in the world takes place each spring and summer on the coastal plain of America's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Some 200,000 caribou migrate hundreds of miles annually to give birth there. Millions of migratory birds flock there to nest. Polar bears and cubs den on the coastal plain over the winter. And, due to this abundance of wildlife, for thousands of years the native Gwich’in people have depended on this biological jewel for survival, with a culture centered around the caribou herd.

An irresponsible drive to drill in one of the last wild places

The coastal plain of the refuge is variously described as the “biological heart” of the Refuge and “America’s Serengeti,” due to the dizzying array of wildlife living and migrating there. From millions of migratory birds traveling from all 50 states and six continents, to the more than 200,000-strong Porcupine caribou herd (named after the Porcupine River), to polar bears, wolves, muskoxen, arctic foxes, wolverines, brown bears, golden eagles, tundra swans and snowy owls, the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge is vital habitat for dozens of species.

Seeing the caribou move across the tundra can be an overwhelming experience. Author Terry Tempest Williams recounts in Orion Magazine watching the caribou on her trip to the refuge. “Heads, antlers, backs, tails, legs, hooves, one caribou merges into another... it is an endless stream of animals walking across the tundra.”

Ken Madsen

The Arctic Refuge has qualities that simply can’t be replaced — a wildness and a vibrancy that is at once old and yet always new. It has old stillness and new life. In "Arctic Refuge: A Circle of Testimony," author Stephen Trimble argues eloquently why the Arctic Refuge should be allowed to fulfill the grand ambitions of The Wilderness Act of 1964. "Our bargain is this: we leave the Refuge alone, we leave the Porcupine Caribou to their calving, the Beaufort Sea polar bears to their denning. We protect this place. And, in turn, we lead lives less impoverished. We fall asleep knowing wilderness has a shelter, and at least one place remains where the ancestral richness of life survives."

The Arctic Refuge coastal plain may well be “America’s Serengeti,” but it may also sit on top of underground reservoirs of oil (and then again, it may not). Sadly, our society’s voracious appetite for oil imperils the entire immense wilderness landscape and the vast network of wildlife that depends on it.

Viktor Loki via Shutterstock.com

Irrational and pointless

With today’s clean energy advancements, the idea of threatening polar bears, caribou and the native Gwich’in people that depend on the caribou, and all the countless other species that call the refuge home for more oil feels both antiquated and foolhardy.

We live in a time of unprecedented expansion of clean energy. The clean energy revolution is already in full swing, with each of the last five years seeing the biggest additions to our national electric generating capacity coming from wind and solar. Combine that with the breakthroughs in battery technology and electric cars, and it is clear that the way we power our economy will continue to rely less each year on fossil fuels.

Some places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have always been too special to ruin, and should be left in their natural pristine state. Against the backdrop of expanding clean energy technologies, oil exploration and drilling in this wildlife refuge becomes irrational and pointless.

The current threat to the Arctic Refuge

Environment Colorado acts as a watchdog in Denver, and along with our national network in Washington, D.C., we keep an eye on any legislation or policy that threatens the special places Americans love. Right now our public lands team is actively engaged with a broad coalition focused on protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

In 2015, President Obama declared the Arctic Refuge “an incredible place, pristine, undisturbed, [supporting] caribou, and polar bears, all manner of marine life, countless species of birds and fish, and for centuries has supported many Alaska native communities,” and for the first time made it the official position of the Department of the Interior to manage the coastal plain as wilderness, and to ask Congress to designate it as such.

In December of 2017, Congress passed and President Trump signed a massive overhaul of our nation’s tax code. Tucked into the bill was a provision that requires the Department of the Interior to offer at least two lease sales for oil and gas development by 2027 in the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge, reversing decades of protection with the stroke of a pen.

Drilling for oil in the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge would put the health of the Porcupine caribou herd at risk as well as the Gwich’in people’s entire way of life. It would endanger the most important denning area in Alaska for polar bears, result in thousands of miles of pipelines, roads and gravel pits, and consume massive amounts of the available fresh water in the region to construct ice roads. Drilling in the refuge would forever change the very wilderness values for which it was originally set aside.

More wilderness at risk: Save the Boreal forest

Every minute, logging levels an area of Canada’s boreal forest equal to roughly 1.5 football fields — primarily to supply consumers with tissues and toilet paper. To save the boreal forest, we’re urging Procter & Gamble to adopt sustainable practices that rely on recycled wood pulp, bamboo and wheat straw.

How can we protect this amazing place before it’s too late? Luckily, congressional champions have introduced legislation that would restore protections to the Arctic Refuge coastal plain by repealing the section of the tax law that mandates the oil and gas lease sales. This bill is called the Arctic Cultural and Coastal Plain Protection Act.

RIGHT NOW: We’re making the case against the administration’s actions and plans, and alerting our supporters and the public to tell Congress that we want the critical coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge protected from oil and gas development.

IN THE MONTHS TO COME: We will continue to build support in Congress for protecting the Arctic Refuge from oil drilling. When the administration changes, we need to be ready to move to overturn the mandate for oil and gas leasing inside the Refuge. To do that, we need to build support now. We also stand ready to engage the public when the Trump administration calls for public comments to their drilling plan. And our lawyers will carefully watch the administration’s moves, and when they misstep, we will turn to the courts to block the pell-mell rush to drill. Finally, we’ll make the case to oil companies that the reputational risk of drilling in the Arctic Refuge is too great, and that it would damage their image beyond repair.

IN THE LONG RUN: Ultimately, we need to win enough hearts and minds to the premise that there are just some places too spectacular and special to ruin for oil. We need to permanently protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and put the specter of oil drilling in this special place to rest.

Florian Schulz

A place of enduring beauty

We, along with millions of other Americans, believe the enduring beauty, history and culture of places like the Arctic Refuge are worth far more than the short-term value of any oil or gas we can extract from them. Acting as if the opposite is true is the definition of shortsightedness. Protecting special places like America’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will require us to act decisively and boldly.

Our success also depends on gaining support that transcends the partisan divide. Fortunately, this is a cause that can unite hunters and hikers, anglers and bird-watchers, native tribes and small businesses, and academics and faith leaders.

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Tell the House of Representatives to restore protections to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

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